EU members should keep budgets 'reactive' over Ukraine crisis - France

Reuters
·1 min read
French Economy and Finance Minister Le Maire arrives at the Elysee Palace in Paris

PARIS (Reuters) - EU governments need to keep their fiscal stances "reactive" in the face of the current Ukraine crisis with targetted measures for households and firms, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.

Le Maire, who on Tuesday will preside over a meeting with other EU finance ministers in Brussels, said the time had come for a joint "targetted, fast and temporary" economic response to the effects of the Ukraine crisis.

The suspension of the EU fiscal rulebook till the end of the year caused by the COVID crisis gave all the flexibility needed to finance emergency support for households and for companies dependent on gas or exposed to the Russian market, he said.

"We need to keep fiscal policy reactive," Le Maire told journalists.

He added that sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine had been effective and would trigger an 8% slump in the Russian economy.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Toby Chopra and Gareth Jones)